MARCS-IP in Cleveland Area

Has anyone noticed a change with the MARCS-IP system in the Cleveland area. I’m having a hard time picking up depts. that I never had a problem with before. I have both the Lake Co. and Cuyahoga towers enabled like I always have but something seems different. I’ve run the system Status utility on both my HP-1’s and on my 536 and the signal is jumping around with no activity. When I run the current activity feature it take a longer then usual time to show anything and when it does it also jumps around?? Just curious if anyone else is having any issues.

With the RNC going on and officers from all over the state working there I wonder if the system is being overloaded as many of them may be listening to their home TGs as well. I saw a post in the MARCS-IP forum where one listener was hearing channels from 18 different counties other than Cuyahoga.

I don't think the system was designed for this level of use.

To early for RNC traffic.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

In the past week I have been hearing considerable traffic on the MARCS-IP Cuyahoga Countywide Tac 3, 4, 8 and 9 TG's and also considerable National Guard. All doing drills.

I also noticed a major drop in Cuy IP Tfc

tonya: Regarding MARCS-IP last week, the Simulcast was acting up more than usual. I noticed the signal strength jumping up and down on my 436. Usually I get a solid 5 bars, no fluctuation. I hooked my PMY (Poor Man’s Yagi) to the 436, which resolved that issue for me.

W8RMH: I also have been wondering if the additional users were going to cause an issue with the Cuyahoga MARCS-IP system. I decided last Friday to run either Pro96com or Unitrunker starting Monday. I’m curious to see about the current utilization and also looking to see if MARCS assigned any additional 700 Mhz frequencies to handle the additional load.

Mszaboo2000: Regarding RNC traffic, but more likely RNC prep traffic. As Swipesy pointed out the County Wide Tac channels have been in use for training. From my conversations with local law and fire personnel, they have been in training sessions for the last three months. Last month the first week of May several local PD’s were at the FBI firing range to qualify with the AR15’s they been training with. Plus there’s the traffic myself and others have monitored from various agencies which are located in other parts of the state. Just a couple examples. TG’s from DAS, 53199 DAS Security Columbus and 54523 DAS Demo Temp 7. Also OSP Security from two locations in Columbus, 51781 OSP State Capitol Complex Security Post 97 and 51788 OSP Shipley Building General HQ Dispatch D6.

OHIOSCAN: That’s interesting, I’ve seen the opposite. I’ve been using my 436 to monitor only Cuyahoga MARCS-IP. It’s been nonstop activity for the last couple of weeks, during the week days.

I’ll post what I find out from my Pro96com or Unitrunker sessions.

I noticed the decrease starting a few days ago, if this is whats occurring could they be making room for high volume traffic during RNC.

OHIOSCAN said:

I noticed the decrease starting a few days ago, if this is whats occurring could they be making room for high volume traffic during RNC.

Click to expand...

The only way that I know of making more room would be to add more Frequencies/Channels. But that wouldn't decrease traffic, just reduce blocking (a.k.a. no freqs available).

It's odd, you and tonya report hearing less and Swipesy and I report hearing more. It almost make me wonder if Cuyahoga MARCS-IP might have a couple of small zones/sites setup. Similar to what Cleveland (GCRCN) has or had with Walton Hills, Chagrin Falls and Hunting Valley as separate sites in the east southeast part of the County.

I'll add that to my list of things to look for Monday, while running Pro96com or Unitrunker.

Running 536 & DSD+ side by side the 436/536 is seeing about 50-60% drop from last week. Most of the missing tfc are TG's from Lake & Geauga that used to be full time. The weird thing is the 774.78125 CC keeps randomly disappearing while watching it in DSD+. If I park the 536 on the 774.78125 CC it does the same thing. Always had a 100% rate on the CC since it lit up.

From DSD+
CUY SITE
769.75625 (LCN-01-1240)
770.00625 (LCN-01-1280)
770.50625 (LCN-01-1360)
770.78125 (LCN-01-1404)
771.23125 (LCN-01-1476)
772.65625 (LCN-01-1704)
772.98125 (LCN-01-1756)
773.29375 (LCN-01-1806)
773.83125 SEC CC(LCN-01-1892)
774.28125 SEC CC(LN-01-1964)
774.53125 SEC CC(LCN-01-2004)
774.78125 PRI CC(LCN-01-2044)

An Extra CC active tonight

OHIOSCAN said:

Running 536 & DSD+ side by side the 436/536 is seeing about 50-60% drop from last week. Most of the missing tfc are TG's from Lake & Geauga that used to be full time. The weird thing is the 774.78125 CC keeps randomly disappearing while watching it in DSD+. If I park the 536 on the 774.78125 CC it does the same thing. Always had a 100% rate on the CC since it lit up.

From DSD+
CUY SITE
769.75625 (LCN-01-1240)
770.00625 (LCN-01-1280)
770.50625 (LCN-01-1360)
770.78125 (LCN-01-1404)
771.23125 (LCN-01-1476)
772.65625 (LCN-01-1704)
772.98125 (LCN-01-1756)
773.29375 (LCN-01-1806)
773.83125 SEC CC(LCN-01-1892)
774.28125 SEC CC(LN-01-1964)
774.53125 SEC CC(LCN-01-2004)
774.78125 PRI CC(LCN-01-2044)

Click to expand...

I just read the above post, I was working on another project. I just put my 500 on Cuyahoga MARCS-IP and it's showing me the following Control Channels in use.
774.781250
774.281250
766.018750 Note: This CC is not listed in RR. But it has been an active CC since the Cuyahoga site first went live. It has never been advertised by the system, so Pro96com or Unitrunker won't report it.

One odd note, typically my 500 only shows 774.781250 and 766.018750 as active CC's. Tonight I'm also seeing 774.281250 as an active CC. So three active CC's in my case, two active CC's for everyone else. Usually everyone else just see's 774.781250.

No better tonight. I'm not hearing anything tonight on the MIP system. Even Bratenahl where I live I'm only hearing the dispatch on the GCRCN but I don't hear the mobiles that must be solely on the MIP system now. I’m curious if anyone can hear the Bratenahl PD mobiles? The cars numbers are 17XX.

Update. Saturday my hit log for MARCS-IP was normal, here in Western Geauga County with much activity in Lake, Geauga and Cuyahoga County. Sunday morning my hit log shows zero activity for Cuyahoga County. This is on both my PSR-500 and PSR-800 which pulls activity off of the MARCS-IP Chagrin tower and Geauga Towers.

766.01875

One odd note, typically my 500 only shows 774.781250 and 766.018750 as active CC's. Tonight I'm also seeing 774.281250 as an active CC. So three active CC's in my case, two active CC's for everyone else. Usually everyone else just see's 774.781250.[/QUOTE]

I use to use 766.01875 also but a couple months ago the sig strength just went south and have not used it since. Wonder if its a mobile coverage setup, when it was received it was always 100% and usually stronger then 774.78125

Mike

OHIOSCAN said:

One odd note, typically my 500 only shows 774.781250 and 766.018750 as active CC's. Tonight I'm also seeing 774.281250 as an active CC. So three active CC's in my case, two active CC's for everyone else. Usually everyone else just see's 774.781250.

Click to expand...

I use to use 766.01875 also but a couple months ago the sig strength just went south and have not used it since. Wonder if its a mobile coverage setup, when it was received it was always 100% and usually stronger then 774.78125



Mike[/QUOTE]



I thought Marcs P25 in Cuyahoga county was simulcast? If it is, then you can only have one active control channel at a time? Are they rotating CC's or are you hearing another system?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Dunno but it was Cuy site on both CC

Mike

Same system and site ID?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Multiple CC's with the same info, not a big deal.

Folks the MARCS-IP site has four Control Channels. One is usually the active CC. The others are AC's, Alternate Control Channels.

What that means in the Moto world is that the radio's in the field have the Control Channels programmed in each radio. In this case the following four 774.781250 CC, 773.831250 AC, 774.281250 AC, 774.531250 AC. The receiving radio scans the programmed Control frequencies looking for Control information. Once the radio finds it, it stays on that frequency as long as it continues to receive Control information.

It does hurt anything to have more than one frequency sending control information.

At least that's the way I understand the process.

budevans said:

Folks the MARCS-IP site has four Control Channels. One is usually the active CC. The others are AC's, Alternate Control Channels.



What that means in the Moto world is that the radio's in the field have the Control Channels programmed in each radio. In this case the following four 774.781250 CC, 773.831250 AC, 774.281250 AC, 774.531250 AC. The receiving radio scans the programmed Control frequencies looking for Control information. Once the radio finds it, it stays on that frequency as long as it continues to receive Control information.



It does hurt anything to have more than one frequency sending control information.



At least that's the way I understand the process.

Click to expand...

Never heard of a system using two CC's at the same time. No known benefit and you're using a channel that could be used for voice.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

mszabo2000 said:

Never heard of a system using two CC's at the same time. No known benefit and you're using a channel that could be used for voice.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

Not being a Certified Motorola P25 Trunk Systems Architect I can only take guess. My guess is, it might be useful as disaster recovery safeguard.

If you have two CC's running, the default or Primary CC will be handling the system. If the default Primary CC fails, the field radio's will automatically look for an active CC. Since it's already running the switch over time should be sub second. No human intervention required. No noticeable loss of functionality in human terms. I would expect the system Controller would see the change and send an alert of the Primary CC failure to whoever gets notified (system ops, Moto).

In the standard setup, you have one active CC and one or more standby AC's. Some mechanism has to recognize the CC failure and then notify the system controller of the CC failure. Then the controller has to activate one of the standby CC's. How long that process takes, I don't know (that's a Moto question), once it does happen then the radio's have to respond to the new CC. But my money is on the first setup with two active CC's as being a faster response.

Regarding your suggestion of a needless waste of an available voice channel. I feel that's a false assumption. The system in question has 1 CC and 3 AC's. You could use two of the AC's for voice in a pinch. But.... a good system manager would never put the system in jeopardy by using all three AC's, leaving no backup. In my opinion, that would be unacceptably poor systems management.

Since we are talking about a system that will play a large roll during the RNC. I would expect every entity involved to be going above and beyond the norm. So that's my best guess.

Only one control channel is active at a time.